Robinson Cano closes the season on a tear for Yankees

NEW YORK — Robinson Cano was leaving the Yankees clubhouse to take his turn in the interview room last night, when a security guard asked him about his sister. Cano turned and looked at him puzzled. “Roslie Cano?” the man asked. Cano stared back. “Do you know a Roslie Cano? Somebody says that she’s your sister.”

Cano took a swig of his bottle of Munn Napa champagne and put the confusion to rest: “No, no — I got no sister.”

As they radioed back upstairs — “Negative! Negative on the sister!” — Cano chuckled to himself and then went back to the duties at hand: Talking about how he’s one of the hottest players in the game of baseball as his team roars into the postseason. Just another night in the life of a man who is making everything from hitting home runs to turning down fraudulent family members, look easy.

“It’s a good feeling,” Cano said after. “It’s not only how I’ve hit, it’s that it came on at the right time. Right when we needed to win games. To be able to do the job. It’s all about timing.”

Like Wednesday night, when the Yankees needed to win to assure themselves of not only their third American League East Division title in four years, but also home field advantage until the World Series. In game No. 162, Cano delivered once again: two home runs, four hits total on the night and being responsible for driving in six of the Yankees’ 14 runs.

“That was a coming-out party for Robbie,” said teammate Alex Rodriguez. “With the world watching when we needed it most — it reminded me of (Hideki) Matsui in ’09. As the guy that hits in front of him, you don’t want to disturb him. You want to keep the line moving and you want the bat in his hand as often as possible.”

In his last 10 games, Cano has been particularly white-hot.

He is 24-for-44 (.545), with three home runs and 15 runs batted in. Not coincidentally, the Yankees have won seven of those games and out-stretched the Baltimore Orioles on the final day of the regular season to capture the division title. Even Cano — who has experienced blistering hot streaks before — is shaking his head a bit at what he’s been able to do of late.

“Not that I remember,” Cano said when asked if he’s ever been locked in like this before. “In this situation, you don’t want to go back and take anything that you do in the past. You just can’t wait to step to the plate and get a pitch that you can drive.”

But before this closing streak began a little more than a week ago, Cano was struggling a bit at the plate.

His average hovered around the .300 mark and he was missing on pitches that he usually turned on.

Then during the Yankees’ final road trip in Toronto, he talked about how a few days can change everything around for a player. He cited Ichiro Suzuki, who found a groove toward the end of September that has carried into the postseason and hoped to do the same.

He has. And then some.

“It’s not what I had in mind, but I’m a guy where I’m always positive,” Cano said. “Right after the game, it’s in the past and it’s right on to the next game. I just don’t think about it.”